We recently went on a day trip to London and would like to share our experience and some tips. London is by far my favorite city in the UK. It was the center of the Empire when it existed. Who would have thought that 2,000 years ago a little marshy little area on the River Thames would rule the world! Today of course it’s so metropolitan, a melting pot, and in that sense it’s quite distinct from so much of the rest of the UK which is quite uniform. There’s so much to see and if you for just a day trip it’s kind of hard so you have to really focus on a narrow set of things that you’re going to see; I recommend just two.

For those who live in the UK and are coming to London for the day, here are some tips. The trains can be super expensive, and you’re beholden to their own schedule. We like having a car as the main form of transport, but like not having to drive it into the heart of London. So first thing you want to do is secure parking in the outskirts of London. You do have to pay the congestion fee, which is about £11.50 per day, but that fee gives you the freedom to use your car. Driving and parking in the outskirts is much easier than in the city center. You want to park near a tube station in the outskirts so you can hop on the Tube to the city center.

There are two different systems that run on Rails in England, the trains and the underground. They go to different places, so if you’re taking a train in and then you want to just connect to the underground system, that would be at big stations like Victoria Station and Tower Bridge station. The two systems have different symbols as well. The underground is the circle with a line through it, whereas the station symbol is two parallel arrows, one on the top and an arrow on the bottom, pointing in different directions.

So we left the house a little after 5:30am. We plan on seeing the London Museum and St Paul’s Cathedral. Here’s a tip if you’re visiting St. Paul’s: if you attend a service, you don’t have to pay the tourist fee. For example yesterday there was a Eucharist at 12 o’clock, and a choral evensong every evening at 5 p.m. We started our day in London around 9am at our favorite cafe, “Paul.” Our favorite item there is the hot chocolate. It is super rich and creamy. For £3.50 it’s expensive but totally worth; it’s the best in the world.

After seeing the Cathedral in the morning, we found ourselves at the London Museum and our good friends, the Romans, were waiting for us. I love the Romans and the incredible legacy the Empire, but more importantly the Republic, had on Western Civilization. Near the museum you can see a fragment of what’s left of the old Roman wall for Londonium, or London. After the Romans we made it to the Middle Ages, to the Reformation and the women were conked out. These women are so slow, always holding me back.

Until next time, my friends; stay post-modern.